There's been a "snow-turning" in Winnipeg at the site of what officials say will be a world-class international polar bear conservation centre.
The facility at the Assiniboine Park Zoo will provide a home for orphaned, injured or problem polar bears.
There will also be an educational and environmental research component.
The Manitoba government is putting up a total of $31 million for the centre, which is intended to serve as the headquarters of Polar Bears International.
The zoo's existing polar and black bear enclosure is being renovated starting this month in the first phase of the project.
The zoo has been without a polar bear since popular and longtime resident Debby died in 2008.
Premier Greg Selinger has said the goal is to have the new polar bear centre open by 2013.
There are about 935 of the white bruins living in the western Hudson Bay area. Climate change is being blamed for a declining population because warmer weather means the bears have less time on the ice to feed on seals.

HBG

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Quick question - 03/31/2015

A Corner Brook woman was upset recently when she had her seal skin purse confiscated by customs officials when entering the United States — she was unaware of a U.S. ban on seal product entering that country. Are you aware of the ban?